A. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the fields of fishing lures and of novelty items. In particular, the invention relates to novelty items made with a plurality of coins to create the appearance of a fishing lure, and to fishing lures themselves. The novel appearance and structure of the invention are provided by the use of coins.
B. The Background Art
The industry of recreational fishing, or angling, is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. The sale of fishing lures to anglers generates a substantial portion of this annual revenue. Fishing lures are designed to attract fish, but are also sometimes designed with the attraction to anglers as an object.
Fishing lures are made with a great variety of materials, colors and shapes. The prior art contains fishing lures with feathers, spinners, iridescent painted bodies, garishly painted bodies, shiny metal objects, noisemakers, vibrators, streamers and a multitude of other devices in a multitude of combinations. The tremendous variety of fishing lures attests to the difficulty of predicting what will attract a fish on any given day in any given place. The attractiveness of the object to the angler, and his estimation of its efficacy in catching fish, is sometimes of greater importance to the object's sale than any demonstrated capacity for enticing fish to bite on the lure. In some instances, the fishing lure's primary object seems more to be a droll or humorous comment on the sport of fishing and the habits of the angler than to be used in the sport itself.
The essential elements of any fishing lure are unchanged since the time of Izaak Walton, however. They are three: an object that will not vanish or dissipate upon immersion in water, a means for attaching that object to a fishing line, and a means for firmly engaging the mouth of the fish that bites upon that object.
Against this background, the inventors have conceived of a novel and unique object constructed with coins to have the appearance of a fishing lure.